Orifice plate carrier for valves



@ctS, 1940. QGDAWS 2,217,216

ORIF'ICE PLATE CARRIER FOR VALVES Filed April 18, 1938 Car] G.D(iVfS' INVENTOR Patented a. 8, 1940 v 2 217 215 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,217,216 ORIFICE PLATE. CARRIER non VALVES Carl G. Davis, Tulsa, Okla., assignor of one-half to Joseph A. Coy, Tulsa, Okla.

Application April 18, 1938, Serial No. 202,742 3 Claims. (Cl. 251-68) The invention relates to orifice plate carriers system showing the position of use of the device. for valves of a. general gate type, usually used The orifice fitting comprises a casing I having, in connection with gathering lines leading from a removable section 2 secured to-the upper side gas wells, and discharging into main lines, and thereof by bolts 2a. The section 2. is provided 5 has for its object to provide a diagonally split with a wafer and wafer carrier chamber 3. ex.- 52 carrier plate for the reception of wafers of the tendingvertically therethrough and which chamapertured or blank type and co-operating with ber. is. oblong in horizontal section. Rotatably opposite seats within the body of the valve for mounted in the section 2 is a shaft 4, having. positively preventing flow of gas in either direc pinions 5 thereon, which are adapted to mesh tion when the blank wafers are in the carrier, with the racks B on the carrier section 1 during. 1'0. for instance upon breaking oirthegathering line. the lowering or raising of the carriage as a The present practice involves the placing of a whole. The chambered branch 8 of the fitting wafer on one side of the. carrier and packing I has disposed in the chamber 9 thereof a 1ater-' means on the other, however it has been found ally movable member l9, which closes the lower that back pressure will by-pass the carrier and end of the chamber 3 when the carrier is initially Y5; packing means. placed in the device or when removing the same A further object is to provide a limitingslidtherefrom. The laterally movable member is ing connection between the carrier sections provided with a rack H engaged by pinions l2 whereby upon dropping of the carrier between carried by the shaft l3, and by rotating thethe seats, the carrier will be restricted in width shaft it will be seen that the member H) may be 21] by the downward movement of one of the seclaterally moved to operative or inoperative posi tions thereof and the racks of the othersection tion. Also rotatably mounted in the chamber 9 will engage the operating gears, which gears is a shaft I4 having pinionsv l5 thereon which are upon rotation, will expand the carrier and seat in the same vertical plane as the p-inions 5, and 25 the wafers, without a drag on the seats. are adapted to mesh with the racks 6 when the 21s A further object is to provide the outer faces carrier is moved downwardly by the pinions 5,. of the carrier sections with recesses for receivand to complete the final seating of the carrier. ing and holding orifice plates, blank wafers or Upon a removal operation the rotation of the rings for measurement purposes or as fillers, pinions l5 will raise'the carrieras a unit until the according to the desired use. pinions 5 mesh with the rack 6 and the con- 30 With the above and other objects in view the tinued rotation of the pinions 5 will, continue. invention resides in the combination and arthe upward movement of the carrier so it can be rangement of parts as hereinafter set forth, removed from the fitting. The above structure shown in the drawing, described and claimed, is well known in the art, however the wafer it being understood that changes in the precise carriers as at present in use are made in one 35 embodiment of the invention may be made withpiece and are provided with means on one side in the scope of what is claimed without departonly for the reception of wafers.

ing from the spirit of the invention. In the carrier at present in use the opposite In the drawing: side of the carrier from the Wafer side is pro- 4 Figure l is a vertical longitudinal sectional vided with a packing usually of the spring type, view through the device. and it has been found that this construction Figure 2 is a perspective view of the carrier drags on the valve seat and under conditions plate, showing a wafer mounted therein and the of use does not positively prevent leakage in both racks. directions, which is necessary where the device Figure 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional is used in connection with a gathering line from 45 view through a portion of the valve body and a gas well to the main line and where there is through the carrier, showing the combination a breakage in the gathering line between the oritherewith of an orifice wafer and a filler ring. fice fitting and the well. Under these conditions Figure 4. is a vertical transverse sectional view a blank wafer, on only one side of the carrier,

through one side of the carrier, showing the particularly on the side towards themain line, 50 slidable connection between the sections. will not prevent loss of pressure from the main Figure 5 is a perspective view of the carrier line, through the device and the broken gathershowing the opposite side from the side shown ing line IS. The main line is designated by the in Figure 2. numeral 11.

Figure 6 is a plan view of portions of a piping The orifice fitting is used primarily to deter- 55 'mine the volume of gas by diiferential reading taken from each side of the orifice plate [8 in the carrier, and through a certain size hole at a certain pressure, said hole being designated by the numeral l9. It is computed by Boyles law, thus only so much gas will fiow through a given size orifice at a given pressure. The differential reading is registered on a chart, continuously during the entire day. v

The flow of gas is through the gathering line I 6 to the main line I! and through the orifice fitting in the gathering line. The pressure from the wells is transferred into the gathering line at five hundred pounds and after thegas flows through the orifice fitting it enters the main line l'l, which is only carrying four hundred pounds. there is a break in the gathering line i6 between the orifice fitting and the well, and it is desired to out the fiow through the orifice fitting from the main line, the fitting is turned into a gate valvefor preventing thereverse flow from the main line to the broken gathering line. When there is .abreak in the gathering line, the carrier sections? and la are provided with blank wafers 20, which'are received in the channels 2! in the outer faces of the sections 1 and 1a,, and they blank the passages 22 through the carrier sections. The carrier sections are provided with contacting diagonal faces 22a; which are in slidable engagement with each other, however the outer faces ofthe carrier sections are in parallel relation to each other at all positions of the carrier. Carrier section Tis provided with headed members 23 which are slidably mounted in vertically L' elongated apertures 24 in the section la, consequentlythe sections have a limited movement in relation to each other. It will be seen that when the carrier, with the wafers carried thereby, is placed into the fitting, the section 'iawill drop 4(1 downwardlyby gravity and constrict the width of the carrier as a whole. As the carrier is lowered by the rotation of the pinions l5, the lower endof the carrier section 70. will engage the should'er 25 below and between the wafer seats 26,

and the movement thereof will be arrested, however the downward movement of the section 1 continues with the rotation of the pinions I5 and'the bevelled engaging surfaces 22a will cause the sections to be spreadapart and the wafers 20 to be seated suddenly on the seats 26, therefore itwill: be seen that there is not a dragging and When wearing action on the seats or wafers. It will also be seen that the pinions I5, in connection with the wedging action between the sections will insure a positive tight seating of the blank wafers, and gas pressure from either side of the carrier will be positively prevented from by-passing the carrier and wafers carried thereby.

When the fitting is in normal use with an orifioewafer l8 carried in one side thereof as shown in Figure 3, a filler ring 21 is used on the opposite side of the carrier. This ring is held in the chambers 2i in the usual manner.

From the above it will be seen that a wafer carrier for orifice fittings is provided which is simple in construction, and one wherein loss of pressure from either side thereof is prevented. It will also be seen that the carrier and wafer will not drag over the wafer seat, but will be seated when the wafers reach their seating position.

The invention having been set forth what is claimed as new and useful is:

1. The combination with an orifice fitting having a fluid passage therethrough, spaced wafer seats in said fitting, an expansible wafer carrier plate within the fitting and extending across the passage between said seats, wafer seats surrounding the passage on opposite sides of the carrier plate, wafers carried by opposite sides of the carrier plate in said wafer seats, said carrierplate being formed from two sections having slidable limited bevelled engagement, stop means in the bottom of the fitting for limiting the downward movement of one of the sections when'it reaches seating position and adapted to expand the carrier and means cooperating with the other carrier section for forcing the same to seating position'at the end of the closingmovement of the other section for seating both wafers.

.2; A device as setforth in claim 1 wherein the wafers on opposite sides of the carrier plate are disposed in recesses of the carrier plate and held therein by the seats.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means for limiting the movement of the carrier plate sections in relation to each other comprises headed members carried by one of the carrier 

